Making Manic Mondays Your Fun Day

And Conquering Those Monday Blues

You might assume because we are an employee research company that we are dedicated to finding new and different ways to write about employee engagement. Well that is true but we also care about the people who work, not just about how they connect to their work. Instead of another article about engaging employees and increasing productivity, we want to focus on you and how you feel about your work. You really do come first, since without you there would be no employees in the first place!

It's a New Day
It’s the start of a new day at work.

Without thinking too hard, are you happy about that or does going to work make you feel a little nauseous? Hopefully you are pumped about your job, but maybe you feel some queasiness and anxiety which definitely does not add up to happy. We are all supposed to look forward to going to work and feel passionate about what we do; work is supposed to be our chance to get back to doing what we love.

On the other hand, if you are tired, feeling hopeless and are not happy going to work, you may be suffering the Blues. Monday Blues have, in particular, become a cultural phenomenon and while you might casually laugh them off to a colleague, they can be much more than a passing tiredness; they are a warning sign that something is not right at work.

So the priority has to be to find out what is causing you to feel anxious, so you can take action to put a stop to it. In the meantime, you have to be aware how your mood is projected onto your co-workers. If you dread your job, for whatever reason, your mood will affect others in ways you cannot see or even realize, so tapping into some ways to make yourself feel better in the short term is a solution that could help while you try to figure out what is really going on.

Keeping your chin up when you don’t feel like it can be brutal but it’s worth a try and may even help to make your work day a tiny bit better. Since the week starts with Monday, try making Monday your focus by making it a great day!

1. Magnificent Mondays: Think of Monday as the day you deserve the best life has to offer. Set aside Mondays for wearing new clothes. Don’t wait for Friday to go out for lunch, do it on Monday instead.

2. Meet me another day: Schedule meetings for any other day. Mondays tend to be hectic so avoid adding meetings to your day.

3. Fun Day: Bring treats on Monday. Everyone feels a bit like you do, so start the week with donuts, bring in a veggie platter, or wear casual work clothes. Whatever you do, try to get others to join you and make Monday a fun day and make it a habit.

4. Plan for Monday on Friday: Leave yourself a to-do note before you leave on Friday, so you aren’t trying to remember what you should be doing on Monday. Deal with the stressful things on Friday, as much as possible, so they aren’t there waiting for you on Monday. If you do have to do some tough stuff, do it right away, don’t procrastinate…just get it done and off your list. And leave your desk clean, so on Monday you are not walking in to chaos.

5. Get up!: Research now shows just two minutes of moving every hour can make you feel so much better and is a healthy response to sitting all day. Walk down the hall, go say hi to someone, take a lap around the elevator, just don’t let one hour fall into the next without getting up and moving - just two little minutes is all it takes.

6. Go green!: And if you can get out of the building for even 20 minutes to walk near a tree-lined road or in a park, go there every chance you get. More research shows that any exposure to green space helps ease our minds, allows us to think more clearly and improves our moods.

7. Don’t complain: Complaining has a way of making life harder, not easier. Be a positive energy force not a Debbie-downer.

8. Inspire yourself: Search the web for quotes that inspire you. One of my favorites is: “It is not happy people who are thankful. It is thankful people who are happy.”

Thank you for reading. Here is to happier employees and to having the Best Day of Your Life.